Cranford Parks old wildlife pond is undergoing a complete make over. During the week Dragena, the boroughs Conservation Officer, and her team excavated the old pond and have made it wider.
On Saturday some of the Friends of Cranford Park volunteers, including myself, joined Dragena and her team and between us we levelled the new area out and laid down a good inch of sand. Unfortunately the underlay wasn't delivered in time so we couldn't do any more, but what we did achieve was very therapeutic. Work will continue on Monday if anyone wants to join us.
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| The darker circle will be more of a bog pond and will also act as an overflow should the main pond flood |
Sunday I was back at the park to not only complete the butterfly transect but to have a good walk around, it's been over ten days since my last visit due to work commitments. Luckily for me it was the sunniest day of the weekend and the butterfly count was a decent figure.
Butterfy tally
37 butterflies of 6 species....
Red Admiral x 16
Comma x 3
Large White x 6
Speckled Wood x 7
Small Copper x 3
Meadow Brown x 2
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| Speckled Wood |
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| tatty Small Copper |
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| Red Admiral - 16 seen during my transect and probably another 10-15 seen after the transect. |
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| Comma |
There was plenty of fungi to find, as to be expected at this time of year.
I found another Stinkhorn fungus, my third this season, and away from where I found the other two. Hopefully this one will be left to mature and not get kicked over like the others....
Below is the delicate Porcelain fungus......
Of course I checked all the sites for the Yellow Stagshorn and found the below. The Stagshorn on the right is just going over and the fungi on the left is new and fresh........
In the meadows there were two very good sized Parasol mushrooms, both specimens bigger than my hand......
In the woods I found three feathers.
From left to right, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Wood Pigeon and Ring-necked Parakeet.....
In the Memorial Garden the old Poppy patch was mainly taken over by thistles this year. Now they've all gone to seed they were attracting a fairly nice 'charm' of Goldfinches including lots of juvenile birds.
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| Juvenile Goldfinch |
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| Adult Goldfinch |
Our resident Kestrel was putting on her usual good show......
Also seen today but not photographed was a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, my second sighting of one at Cranford Park. Also six Ivy Mining Bees and hundreds of Honeybees. All four wild hives were very active today in the warmer weather.
I lost an hour today trying to photograph our Kingfisher. It's the male and he really doesn't like perching for a photo. He's currently being seen most often along the river between the M4 viaduct and the stone bridge. I had six sightings of him during that hour but every time I managed to get my camera on him, he flew off.
Also seen today - one Common Buzzard, one Red Kite, three Great Spotted Woodpeckers, two Stock Doves, one Sparrowhawk and one Grey Wagtail.
Not a bad haul for an afternoon visit
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